Globalisation is associated with capitalist multinationals
dedicated to the enrichment of wealthy, corporate shareholders.
However, less well known is that the English and Scottish
Co-operative Wholesale Societies, owned by the growing number of
local co-operative societies across the country, were early leaders
in global commerce. Owned by their working-class members, by 1900
there were over 1,000 societies and millions of individual members.
Spreading profits widely through the 'divi' which rewarded members
shopping at the co-op store, and selling safe and wholesome food,
the co-operative movement was a successful part of the emerging
labour movement. This success depended on the wholesale societies
supplying societies with commodities from all over the world.
Because local societies were free to source produce from whoever
they chose, competitive pressures required the wholesale societies
to develop the world's most formidable network of international
supply chains, with branches, depots, plantations and factories in
the USA, Canada, Denmark, Sweden, Spain, Greece, France, Germany,
India, Ceylon, Australia, New Zealand, colonial West Africa and
Argentina. This book explains how the wholesales developed and
managed these networks, giving them a competitive advantage in
their dealings with the local societies. It will explore why and
how this 'People's Global Colossus' declined in the later 20th
century, and how its focus in international commerce moved onto
ethical sourcing, investment and Fair Trade. Integral to these
global networks were the UK movement's relations with foreign
co-operative movements, especially through involvement in the
International Co-operative Alliance, and promotion of co-operatives
in the Empire by successive British governments as a tool for
economic development. The 'People's Colossus' was thus a political
as well as a commercial player in the increasingly complex world of
the late 19th and 20th centuries.
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